


To the Beat

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M, First Meetings, Modern AU, Rumbelle - Freeform, kid!Gideon, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 11:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19018729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Whilst taking her son to dance classes, Belle meets the shy pianist, Mr Gold.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “Limelight, sparkle, tap”





	To the Beat

Ever since she could remember, Belle had loved old musical movies. Colour or black and white, it didn’t matter, as long as there was beautiful dancing and catchy music, she could watch the magic weaved on the silver screen for hours. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Rosemary Clooney; they were her idols and remained so long into adulthood. She’d grown up wanting to be Judy Garland or Ann Miller (or maybe both at the same time).

She’d never had the voice, but she’d taken tap and ballet lessons well into her teens. She’d never been able to make a career of it, but as a hobby, it still filled her with joy over twenty years later, and watching the glamour and sparkle of the silver screen never failed to make her smile whatever life might throw at her.

Naturally, with so many old movies in the house and with the musical soundtracks always playing in the background to whatever domestic task his mother was performing, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Gideon would inherit Belle’s love for the classics. He watched with gleeful awe as she recreated famous dance sequences in the living room (‘Good morning’ from Singin’ in the Rain was a favourite), and he was tapping his feet in time with the music even before he could walk. Belle had always held a secret hope that he’d follow in her own dancing footsteps, but she didn’t want to force it on him.

It was a rainy Friday in September when she got the first inklings of Gideon’s show business ambitions, when he came home from school in the obvious throes of distress.

“Gid? What’s the matter, love? Did something happen at school?”

Gideon nodded, his brow furrowed as if he couldn’t decide between anger or sadness; once he was sat down on the sofa with milk and cookies and Belle was settled on the floor in front of him, he seemed to have decided on indignation.

“What happened, Gid?”

“We were talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up,” Gideon said. “And I said I wanted to be a tap dancer like Fred Astaire.”

Belle’s heart leapt to her mouth, but she pushed down her excitement, because this revelation was definitely contributing to making Gideon unhappy. “Ok. So then what happened?”

“Then the other boys started laughing at me! They said that boys don’t tap dance, that’s a girly thing!”

Belle was completely blown sideways by this. She’d never even considered dancing being gendered like that before. The famous tap dancers she’d adored in her youth were a mixture of men and women.

“That’s just silly,” she said firmly. “Especially when you told them that you wanted to be like Fred Astaire, who’s very obviously a man.”

“I know that!” Gideon exclaimed. “And the teacher said that too! But then at break, they said that Fred Astaire didn’t count because he’s only in old films, and that these days, tap dancers are all girls!”

Belle resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the ridiculous notions that some kids had had put into their heads, and for a moment she seriously considered gathering all the parents of Storybrooke together and making them sit through her entire musical collection, over 500 hours of it in total.

“Good grief. They have a very narrow-minded view of the world, Gid, and I pity them. If you want to be a dancer, then you can go ahead and be a dancer.”  

Gideon’s face lit up. “Can I really Mom? Will you teach me?”

“No, love. I don’t know enough to teach you.” Gideon’s face fell, but then brightened when she continued. “We’ll get you some proper lessons with a professional at the dance school in town.”

Ever since he’d been born, Belle had been saving for dance lessons for Gideon. Well, she told everyone that it was his college fund, which it would have been if this moment had never occurred. Now, she could put that fund to good use.

“That would be brilliant, Mom!” He paused, deep in serious thought. “Would there be other boys there, though? I don’t want to be the only boy.”

“I’m sure that there will be other boys there, but we’ll see when we go along. Shall we take a look on Saturday?”

Gideon’s response was a huge hug, which Belle took to be a definitive yes.

X

As soon as Miss Mal, former ballerina and current principal of the Storybrooke Dance School, showed them into the room where the beginner’s tap dance classes were taking place and Gideon saw that he was not going to be the only boy there, Belle knew that she had lost him. He was in his element already as the teacher invited him to join in with the class even though he didn’t have tap shoes yet. Belle was just content to watch him, until Miss Mal took her through into her office to sort out the paperwork for getting Gideon enrolled.

On their way to deal with administrative matters, they passed the other mirrored studio, this one set up for ballet with a barre running around the edge, and Mal stepped inside for a moment to speak to the teacher. The class was young, elementary school girls taking their first steps to the tinkling piano music coming from the corner by the door. Belle glanced across at the pianist, a small, thin man with greying hair and dark eyes. As he caught her gaze, she smiled, and he gave a minute smile back before his face flushed bright pink and he turned his attention back to the music, studying it with intensity even though Belle could tell that he must have played the same tunes over and over and could probably do it with his eyes closed.

At that moment, the lesson came to an end, with Miss Mal supervising the curtseying.

“That was very good, girls. Thank you for your hard work this week.”

There was a chorus of thanks to Miss Briar for the lesson and thanks to Mr Gold for the piano, and the girls started to file out of the room. Miss Mal came back over to Belle as Mr Gold began to gather up his music. He kept his head down as he rushed out of the room past Belle, leaving her feeling rather confused and wondering what she’d done wrong.

“Don’t worry, he’s always like that,” Miss Mal said as they continued down the corridor.

No more was said on the topic of Mr Gold, but even after Belle had collected Gideon again and they were on their way home, Gideon enthusing about all the steps he was going to learn, she still couldn’t help thinking about the shy little pianist.

Over the course of the next few months, Belle tried to find out a little more about the mysterious Mr Gold, from the snippets that she picked up from Gideon and what little she overheard among the other parents. She really was intrigued by him, and the fact that he always had a smile and a ready word of praise for the kids, and indeed always had a ready smile and glance for her, but he clammed up as soon as Belle tried to actually talk to him. He had a gift of melting into the background as soon as the music was done, avoiding everyone.

So far, all she had managed to learn was that he’d played piano for the school ever since it had opened, that his son taught adult ballroom dance in the evenings, and his goddaughter was studying for a scholarship to full time ballet school.

She probably shouldn’t be so interested. He was shy and he didn’t like talking to strangers, so Belle wasn’t going to force her conversation onto him. She’d just always liked a good mystery, and all of the other staff were so chatty with the parents.

It wasn’t until the end of term show that she found any answers.

Each of the junior classes performed a piece in the little revue, held on the last Saturday of the term, showing off what they had learned to their parents. Gideon only had a small part, showing off the steps he had learned over the past couple of months, but he enjoyed his time in the limelight, and Belle’s hands were sore from applauding him. She wouldn’t change it for the world, and she would be forever grateful that something that brought her so much joy could also make her son so very happy.

After the performance, there were refreshments, and Belle was chatting amiably with the other parents, Gideon absorbed with his new friends trying to teach himself some of the steps that the older kids had performed and making a fearful racket in the process. She noticed that Mr Gold had once more vanished. Perhaps he just didn’t like large crowds. She hoped that he’d at least got a cup of tea before he disappeared, and his jacket was still lying on top of the piano on the stage so he had to be around somewhere. Belle bit her lip, wondering whether he would appreciate being found or not. They’d exchanged smiles and glances so many times, which she’d always found to be encouraging, but he was never around when she actually had the opportunity to speak to him.

Belle took a deep breath, took a couple of fairy cakes from the refreshment table, and left the room in search of Mr Gold. Once she was outside the main hall, he was surprisingly easy to track down. Piano music was coming from the ballet studio, something beautiful and complicated, a piece meant to be listened to, not danced to.

Belle peeped around the door, but the music didn’t stop; Gold was totally absorbed in it. It was only once the piece came to its coda that he looked up and saw her. He startled, a rabbit in the headlights, and Belle gave an awkward wave, holding up the cakes.

“I didn’t want you to miss out,” she said.

Gold opened his mouth to respond, closed it as if he’d suddenly thought better of it, and then took a deep breath.

“Th-th-thank you.”

With those two words, everything fell into place. Gold didn’t like to talk to anyone because he had a stammer.

“That was beautiful,” she said. “Beethoven, wasn’t it?”

Gold nodded, and he put his fingers back on the keys, playing a light, tinkling tune, his attention still fixed firmly on Belle.

“You son is in the t-t-tap class?”

“Yes. He loves it. He wants to be the next Fred Astaire.”

“He’s g-got the p-p-p…” Gold sighed. “P-p-p… Oh, you know.”

“Thank you. He’ll be so proud to know you think so.”

The music continued on, a little soundtrack to their conversation.

“Music h-helps me t-talk,” Gold said presently. “C-can’t hear myself as much. Gives me something else t-to concentrate on. The r-rhythm helps t-too.”

Belle had read about aiding people with stammers whilst she’d been training as a librarian; it tied in with helping kids to learn to read aloud. Listening to music whilst speaking and tapping out the beats of syllables and sentences were both tried and tested methods, so it made sense that Gold found comfort in playing whilst he talked.

They continued to talk for a while; well, Belle did most of the talking, but it was still a conversation, until Gideon came in looking for her. It was time to go home.

“Bye, Mr Gold,” Gideon said cheerfully.

“G-goodbye. And th-thank you.” He smiled at Belle. “For your p-p-p… p-patience.”

“Any time. Maybe we could chat agaain sometime?”

Gold nodded. “I’d l-like that.”

Belle could have waltzed on air out of the dance school.


End file.
